For Ukraine and its allies, who spent months trying to win Donald Trump over to their cause in the war started by Russia, it is back to square one.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s phone calls with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine have deepened expectations that progress might soon be made on ending those countries’ more than three-year war.

Kherson region. Late on May 18, Russian shelling of residential areas in Ukraine’s southern oblast, or region, of Kherson, killed a woman and injured three other people; earlier the same day, a man was killed in a drone strike on the village of Vesele on the Dnieper River.

Russia's Investigative Committee said on Tuesday that it had launched criminal proceedings against a prominent journalist who heads a publication in neighbouring Latvia providing critical coverage of the three-year-old conflict in Ukraine.

Good morning. Donald Trump says Russia and Ukraine will begin peace talks. France, Britain and Canada threaten sanctions against Israel. And Brexit never seems to end. Listen to the day’s top stories.

The crucial fight being slugged out between Russia, Ukraine and their allies is for the ear of US President Donald Trump, who seems increasingly frustrated with efforts to broker peace.

Bridget Brink, an East Grand Rapids native and the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, recently resigned over policy disagreements with the Trump administration.

The U.S. president said he would speak to Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Monday to discuss trade and "stopping the 'bloodbath'" in Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine’s first direct talks in three years began Friday with hopes as dim as the gray Istanbul skies.